When Jeremy Mayfield visited a medical center in Hickory, N.C., to provide a urine sample for a drug screening, a technician wearing a lab coat and rubber gloves asked that the NASCAR driver remove everything from his pockets. The technician asked Mayfield to wash his hands, and then handed him a specimen cup that had been removed from a sealed plastic bag. Mayfield was directed to another room containing only a toilet, where he provided his sample. He then opened the door and gave the specimen cup to the technician.

That account, provided in an affidavit submitted to U.S. District Court on Tuesday by Mayfield's attorneys, details an independent test that Mayfield -- who is fighting allegations that he tested positive for methamphetamines in two different random tests conducted by NASCAR -- took on July 6. That test "shows no trace of such [an] imminently destructive drug," Mayfield's attorneys stated in documents filed with the court.

Injunction lifted

Jeremy Mayfield is back under suspension for a failed drug test after an appeals court ruled in NASCAR's favor Friday, issuing a stay on the injunction.

• Complete story, click here
• Mayfield: Independent clean
• NASCAR: Test meth again

And yet, Mayfield's independent test wouldn't have passed muster in many sports leagues, for one reason -- according to the details supplied in the affidavit, no one witnessed him providing it. As crass and indecent as it sounds, the visual observation of an athlete providing a urine sample is paramount for collectors trying to ensure that the specimens are genuine and have not been tampered.

"This is because we have encountered many athletes with tubes and stuff to try and trick the collector," Dr. Don Catlin, founder of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Lab -- one of the foremost drug-testing laboratories in the world -- wrote in response to an e-mail query. "Not all the organizations are that strict, but [the] NFL, Major League Baseball, etc., all have direct observation rules. It is amazing to me that athletes are able to comply. They just get used to it and learn to [urinate] in front of a crowd. In fact, they will complain if the observer is not watching, because that means he is not a good collector."

In many sports, policies for direct observation of sample collection are clear-cut. According to Catlin, the current rule for male Olympic athletes is to drop shorts to the knees and lift T-shirts to the chest -- "nipple to knee," as it's called in testing parlance. The NFL's drug policy is direct: "To prevent evasive conduct," it reads, "all specimens will be collected under observation." Major League Baseball's policy demands that the specimen cup be kept in the collector's sight at all times, that a collector must walk beside a player entering the area of collection so the player cannot hide the cup, and that collectors "must have a clear and unobstructed view of the passing of the specimen."

Those stipulations are in effect because of the lengths some athletes have gone to try and circumvent the system. In a recent issue of Esquire magazine, former NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich said he used to beat drug tests by stashing a sunscreen bottle full of a friend's clean urine in his underwear. Former Minnesota Vikings running back Onterrio Smith was suspended for the entire 2005 season for using a urine-delivery device strapped to his inner thigh that was designed to foil drug tests. Some Olympic athletes at the 2004 Athens Games were busted for using tubes to carry clean urine. While there's no evidence that Mayfield attempted such tactics, the fact that he was not observed providing the sample would on its own void the results in some sports.

"Observed collection is the standard in sports drug testing. The only exception we make is for high-school-age athletes who are given some privacy. Urine substitution or sample adulteration is quite possible in an unobserved collection," Frank Uryasz, president of Drug Free Sport -- a Kansas City drug-testing firm that works with the NCAA, the PGA Tour, baseball's minor league system, and various college conferences and state high-school leagues -- wrote in an e-mail.

"All sports tests are observed, and this procedure is written into the collection protocol. The athletes know this, so they don't refuse. If they did refuse, it is considered the same as a positive."

NASCAR's drug policy states that specimen collection may be observed "when necessary," but does not mandate such a practice. According to a NASCAR spokesman, the sanctioning body sometimes uses the "nipple to knee" approach, especially if the person in question has failed a previous test. According to the affidavit, that's what happened on July 6, when NASCAR's drug testers arrived at Mayfield's residence to collect a sample and mandated it be provided under direct observation. Mayfield initially balked at the request.

"Unbeknownst to me, NASCAR directed their Collector to obtain my urine sample using a directly observed method," Mayfield said in the affidavit. "This means that somebody had to physically watch me place my sample into a urine specimen cup. I was initially reluctant to allow such an invasive procedure. I spent time on the phone informing my attorney that NASCAR was requiring this invasive procedure. There was a bit of delay while my attorney attempted to negotiate with NASCAR to remove this direct observation requirement. NASCAR refused to concede."

Mayfield ultimately relented and provided the sample, which according to NASCAR tested positive for methamphetamine. In the affidavit, Mayfield asserts that the results of that drug test are "intentionally false. It is impossible for methamphetamine to be in my body, as I have never consumed that substance."

And yet, Uryasz said clean follow-up tests are far from unique.

"The reason most after-the-fact drug tests are negative is that the drug has been eliminated from the body due to normal metabolism," Uryasz wrote. "Even if the sample is observed, if the drug has been eliminated from the body, it won't be in the urine. That's why one can't wait two days to blow into a breathalyzer after an alleged DUI."